Posted on 03/23/2011 4:55:05 PM PDT by decimon
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Actos, a medicine that treats adult onset diabetes, also prevented the development of the disease in more than 70 percent of people who are considered high risk, according to findings announced Wednesday.
The results could help tens of millions of pre-diabetics in the world, including 40 million Americans, who are considered high risk because of excessive weight, ethnicity or other predispositions.
An Actos (pioglitazone) pill taken each morning prevented the onset of Type 2 (adult) diabetes in 72 percent of the 602 high-risk participants in the study, whose findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers also said they found among participants a 31 percent decrease in the rate of thickening of the carotid artery, a major vessel that supplies blood to the brain.
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"The drug was able to postpone conversion to diabetes in 72 percent of people," Chilton said in the statement announcing the findings.
"The only thing that could potentially beat that is the free pill no one seems to be able to take -- diet and exercise."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ping
Just how does one prove a negative.. those “high risk” people may never have developed it without the drug.. just one more drug to push on TV..
If true, this is VERY good news for us borderline sugar types.
Googled the drug and someone is already raining on their parade. Time to start hiring lawyers
“Norwich, UK - A new meta-analysis of observational studies has provided more evidence that the diabetes drug rosiglitazone (Avandia, GlaxoSmithKline) is associated with a higher risk of heart failure, MI, and death than a similar agent, pioglitazone (Actos, Takeda) [1].”
http://www.theheart.org/article/1199863.do
No, you have it backwards. This thread is about Actos. Which does BETTER in the "meta-analysis" you reference.
I was placed on it
my feet swelled up till I could not git on shoes
I know 3 others who tried it and all had some kind of troubles
Been on it too... it slightly lowered my blood sugar, but I gained about 10 lbs in two months. That appears to be common according to my Dr....
That’s good feedback. Makes the thread more informative for people with a personal interest.
This is part of why drug trials are done. Some portion of "high risk" people would not have developed it even without the drug so you need a "control" population to compare against. This 72% improvement over the control is significant.
I'm surprised an RN doesn't have a better grasp on how medications are tested for efficacy.
PING
Exactly - they compare the results of a group that took the drug against the results of a group that did not take the drug.
This is pretty significant - my family has a history of diabetes, though it hasn't effected any of my siblings or myself yet. My grandmother had it and had to take insulin shots every day. Of course, that was back in the 1960's and 1970's - I don't know what other treatments are available that would help the situation these days.
Pioglitazone for Diabetes Prevention in Impaired Glucose Tolerance
FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.
Good question; I wish I knew the answer. I’m no scientist, that’s for sure, so it’s all a closed book to me.
I’m just hoping I don’t end my life with amputated feet/legs; we all have to go sometime, but that’d be nasty.
[shrug]
I have to leave it all to better minds than mine.
Same experiance here as well
All drugs have side effects, and the Type II people I know have tried to keep eating sugary foods while taking drugs like Metformin to paper it over. Metformin has had horrendous side effects on a few of my friends, mainly muscle weakening.
It may not be for everyone, but for me, a low-carb diet combined with a little cinnamon and fenugreek really works best. There are no side effects. A little aerobic exercise helps a lot too.
Exactly! All these drugs have side effects that may not be known for many years. Even Metformin, which has been around for ages, is now shown to contribute to vitamin B12 deficiency.
I still say there are no studies that show any of these drugs do anything substantive to prevent serious complications of diabetes. They lower the surrogate measure (blood glucose numbers), but they do not save an eye, a limb, or a heart. The answers to type 2 diabetes are just not there yet. For now, the best option is exercise and lowering the carbs.
Testing all the time is also BS, except for type 1 diabetics who take insulin. After a short time, every type 2 knows basically what affects their numbers, and the push for testing is just a boon for the companies that make the strips. A recent study showed that people who tested frequently had no different numbers from people who did not, but they were more depressed.
The problem is a blind test is just that.. they have no way to know who will end up diabetic so we have no way to know for certain that the difference was the drug..
I would be called high risk.. I am over weight and come from a family with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.. yet my blood work is great.. If I had taken that drug they would have attributed it to the drug ...
We have become a country that is drug dependent ...the problem is every drug has side effects and people end up dead or needing other meds (with their own side effects) to treat the new problem
Think of the market for THIS DRUG.. everyone THAT MIGHT be at RISK
So it is not treating anything except potential illness and it will be an unnecessary drug for lots of people.. lots of money goes to the drug company and out the mans pocket..
Type 2 diabetes can be controlled and managed.. even without drugs..
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